China: Cease political persecution and disclose information about missing Tibetan monks
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) calls on the Chinese authorities to disclose information about three Tibetan monks subjected to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and unjust sentencing in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo. TCHRD believes that the monks are being persecuted for their religious and political beliefs and their detention violates established human rights norms and principles that China is obligated to respect, protect and fulfill.
Lobsang Thabkey, 37, was sentenced to four years in prison on 30 July this year on unknown charges. The monk from the local Kirti Monastery had been detained last year on an unknown date. No other details are available. Son of Mr Lokho from Lhade Gabma nomadic village, he had joined the Dialectics College at his monastery where he was pursuing the Uma (Madhyamika/Middle Way) course at the time of his arrest. The previous college he had attended at the same monastery called Nangten Shoenu Riglob Khang (College for Buddhist Logic) was shut down in 2003.
Two other monks remain missing after they were detained by local Chinese police in separate incidents. Thubpa, 32, a monk from Trotsik Monastery, was taken away from his residence at night towards the end of 2017 in Trotsik (Ch: Hezhi) Township. He has been missing since then. He had earlier served an 18-month sentence in a ‘Re-education Through Labour’ prison for participating in a protest against Chinese government on 16 March 2008 in Trotsik and burning a Chinese flag.His father, Kelsang aka Gonkar, had served three years imprisonment, including nine months of incommunicado detention, for participating in a protest on 16 March 2011 when a monk named Phuntsok self-immolated near Kirti Monastery.
Police arbitrarily detained Lobsang Dorjee, 36, at night from his residence at Kirti Monastery in August 2018. His condition and whereabouts remain unknown. Son of Mr Sangri from Chukle Gabma nomadic village, Dorjee had earlier served a three-year sentence after his arrest in 2011.
